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KPXG
KPXG-TV, virtual and UHF digital channel 22, is an Ion Television-owned-and-operated television station serving Portland, Oregon, United States that is licensed to the state capital of Salem. The station is owned by Ion Media Networks. KPXG's studios and offices are located on Southwest Naito Parkway in downtown Portland, and its transmitter is located in the Sylvan-Highlands section of the city. KPXG's signal is relayed on translator station K14LP-D in Cottage Grove, in the Eugene television market. KPXG-TV also reaches some portions of the Eugene market over-the-air and on cable. History The station first signed on the air on November 21, 1981 as KECH. It was founded by general partners Chris Desmond and Arnold Brustin; both were formerly associated with CBS. It originally operated as a general entertainment independent station, broadcasting classic movies and television series, it was branded as "Catch 22". By mid-1982, the station began carrying the ONTV subscription television service in the evenings; customers would be supplied with a small yagi antenna, an amplifier if needed and a set-top box in order to receive ONTV programming. The station reverted to a full-time general entertainment format in 1984, and changed its call sign to KWVT on October 1, 1986. Soon afterward, in 1987, the station affiliated with the Home Shopping Network; initially carried only in the overnight hours, HSN programming expanded to the midday hours later that year, and began to air full-time by 1987. At that point, the station was sold to Blackstar Broadcasting, and changed its call sign first to KHSP on September 17, 1987, and then KBSP-TV on April 21, 1988. During that year, the station carried the Oregon Megabucks drawings; the program was produced in conjunction with the Oregon Lottery, which discontinued the program by 1990. Blackstar sold the station to Paxson Communications (now Ion Media Networks) on January 19, 1996, and the station began to air religious programming in the morning, informercials in the afternoon and evening, and Worship Network programming during the overnight hours. On July 1, 1998, the station changed its call letters to KPXG, and upon the launch of Pax TV on August 31, the station began airing the network's programming from noon to midnight (reduced to 4 to 11 p.m. by 2003, when the network reduced its programming schedule). It remains an affiliate of the restructured Ion Television network, following the network's rebrandings from Pax TV and i: Independent Television. Former Portland translator KPXG-TV was formerly relayed on a fill-in translator in Portland, KPXG-LD (UHF digital channel 42). It was initially a separately operated station, signing on in the spring of 1994 as K43EK, operating on UHF channel 43. The station was formerly licensed to VVILPTV Inc., which aired home shopping programming from ValueVision for four years. In 1998, K43EK was bought by Paxson Communications, which transitioned the station into a translator of KPXG to cover areas of the Portland market that receive a rimshot signal of KPXG, and soon changed the calls to KPXG-LP. The station later moved to channel 54, and then to channel 42 upon transitioning to digital television in August 2009. Other call letters assigned to the station in the past was K60DW. On December 15, 2014, Ion reached a deal to donate KPXG-LD to Word of God Fellowship, parent company of the Daystar network. Category:Ion Television affiliated stations Category:Telemundo affiliated stations Category:Channel 22 Category:Salem Category:Portland Category:Oregon Category:Ion Media Category:1981 Category:Television channels and stations established in 1981 Category:Former independent stations Category:Former ONTV affiliates Category:Former Financial News Network affiliates Category:Former HSN affiliates Category:Former PAX Affiliates Category:UHF Category:Ion Television Oregon Category:Other Oregon Stations